William Allen Summers

Beloved husband, treasured friend, world traveler, brilliant chemist, business innovator, lover of music and animals, bread baker, and spiritual seeker Bill Summers was born to William and Catherine (O’Neill) Summers at the Fort McPherson Army Base in Atlanta, GA.

At the age of two months, Bill moved with his family to Indianapolis, but when asked where he was from Bill’s reply throughout his 80 years was “Georgia”.

Persistence and insistence were two of his memorable qualities. He honed his stubbornness at an early age. After attending kindergarten for one day, he returned home pronouncing that he was not going back. And he didn’t. He matriculated at St. Michael’s Elementary (1-8) and Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, distinguishing himself as a curious, studious student with a streak of smart aleck. A pitcher, he enjoyed baseball and hoped to play in college. Playing trumpet, Bill also formed a jazz-swing combo that entertained at dances and events among the Indy metro high school crowd.

Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN recruited Bill to join the class of 1966. His college years included running track, failing to make the cut on the baseball team but being recruited for the football team, serving as a tight end. He graduated with honors in chemistry and regarded his four years of undergraduate school as a course in human and civil rights. Along with science, he immersed himself in the cultural arts of music, literature, world history, philosophy and fraternity pranks. A lifelong Wabash booster, he endeavored to inveigle young men in high school to consider Wabash College. An all-men’s college experience, however, doesn’t suit many teenage boys today.

Sorely disappointing his father by not applying to medical school, Bill instead sought a graduate assistantship at Northwestern University in chemistry. During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (1968), the Northwestern administration warned students from straying downtown to the Loop where all the action was. Being devoted to his lab and ongoing experiments, Bill rather reluctantly stayed away and regretted having missed witnessing history.

Awarded with a doctorate in chemistry in 1971 after defending his dissertation (Synthetic, Degradative and Photochemical Studies of Nucleotides), Bill and his first wife Lucinda and baby daughter hit the road to Tulsa--University of Oklahoma--for a post-doctoral assignment. He dutifully reported for his draft physical during this Vietnam era but was grateful to be rejected due to lingering childhood asthma. The family grew to four with the birth of a son, and they moved to Terre Haute, IN where Bill worked as a bench chemist for International Minerals & Chemicals. An early mentor encouraged Bill to move to the business side, and Bill earned his MBA (1981) from Indiana State at night and on weekends. Bill and Lucinda divorced in 1988.

Dual mastery of both business acumen and chemistry proved useful for moving ahead with commercial development opportunities in animal health. Bill started to travel internationally. Representing products addressing hoof & mouth disease in cattle took him frequently to South America. Switching species, he became team leader for porcine somatotropin as a lean-muscle-promoting application for hogs. Work with the pork industry took him to Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, Russia, Ireland and the U.K. Working in the pork industry provided new opportunities for Bill, particularly by meeting his wife of 34 years, Robin Kline. They married in 1990.

Savvy with patent applications, navigating the federal regulatory jungle, business acquisitions, doing due diligence and being fluent in business lingo was useful training ground for his launching a successful consulting business, Management Solutions, after he moved to Des Moines in 1991. He assisted both existing and startup businesses in animal health, organic gardening, agriculture seed treatment, organic pest control and culinary product development and marketing.

Bill’s last business venture involved his travel to India to license a promising new technology for biofuel production from the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune. During nine years, he enjoyed his travel to India, his adventures and work there and cherished the professional and personal friendships that grew out of this association.

A seasoned and intrepid traveler, Bill always enjoyed new cultures, food, sights and people. Endlessly curious and adventurous, many trips to the regions of France and Italy with Robin nourished his hunger to experience other climates, dress, attitudes, habits and language.

Bill seemed to know at least something about almost everything. That could make him very useful—or sometimes annoying. His appetite for films—quirky indies were a favorite—kept his quip quotient on replay, as he was known to recite a line or more from a favorite screenplay. From the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre to Irish film favorites to Guy Ritchie’s British gangster films, Bill enjoyed and could discuss at length character development, cinematography and narrative arc.

Bill’s love of opera, symphonic and chamber music, choral classics, chanting Taizé, thundering organ, bluegrass, folk, jazz, steel drum and R&B reflected his diverse, inclusive tastes. A fraternity brother said: “I will always think of Bill playing ‘Fur Elise’ on the living room of our ratty Kappa Sigma house at Wabash in the early ‘60s.” Although he couldn’t--or wouldn’t--dance, he enjoyed watching others bust a move. Bill worked at playing the banjo for more than 30 years.

A curious spiritual seeker, Bill grew in depth and awareness with an open heart and mind. He practiced centering prayer--Christian meditation—for 20 years, was a graduate and member of Illuman, and was a 2016 cohort of the Living School. Bill read widely and deeply from many spiritual teachers, from Hildegard of Bingen to Parker Palmer, Rumi and Wendell Berry. Always up for a retreat, workshop or study group, Bill participated in many heart-growing group gatherings from Ghost River (AB, Canada) to Albuquerque, Ghost Ranch and Polk County. He was a member of the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Des Moines Intentional Eucharistic Community.

Fiercely social-justice-minded with a compassionate heart, Bill was a graduate of Just Faith, advocated for justice for all marginalized people and non-human beings. Standing up, speaking up and showing up were real practices for him. A universal donor (O-), he donated blood regularly for close to 50 years; and always urged others to give a pint.

As a board member of The Bridge—a coalition of the four churches in downtown Des Moines--Bill was part of a team that founded the Connection Café in 2004. This free lunch program in downtown Des Moines serves guests daily. Bill served there regularly, and he also enjoyed any chance to serve dinner at the Central Iowa Shelter. Visiting with many guests gave birth to enduring relationships.

A talented baker, Bill was known for his killer chocolate chip cookies, baking them by the baker’s dozen for sharing. He enjoyed bringing baskets of cookies to the Catholic Worker House in Des Moines, Connection Café, the Shelter and countless other gatherings.

Bill’s paternal grandmother, Muzz, taught Bill about bread baking during a grad school break week. A fan of all things fermented, Bill nurtured three sourdough starters and was baking sourdough loaves, focaccia and pizza on a regular basis. During the pandemic he was quite prolific, delivering fresh loaves to doorsteps all over the DSM Metro.

Along with travel, museums, bird watching, creative gardening and sitting on the deck with a nightly cocktail, there was nothing Bill enjoyed more than entertaining friends for dinner with Robin. They relished doing the dishes after guests left and reflecting on the evening.

Together they curated groups of friends for a week or two at La Quercia, outside of Umbertide in Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy. Day trips, marketing and cooking together in the evenings with a fire made delicious memories for many. It was customary at the end of two weeks to count the number of empty bottles of prosecco and wine lining the kitchen windowsill.

Northern New Mexico was a magnet for Bill and Robin for 30 years. They visited in autumn or deep into the winter months. Mystical, spiritual, magical Chimayo, Santa Fe, Ghost Ranch, Bandelier, Truchas and Trampas were haunts for soul-enriching travel. The road trip always included a planned stop at Al’s Chickenette (RIP) in Hays, KS, for lunch. New Mexico served up posole, chilaquiles and the requisite green chile cheeseburger.

Frequent trips to Chicago for Steppenwolf Theater and many museums in the Windy City were a source of cultural, culinary and intellectual nourishment over the years. The excellent local theater scene in Des Moines always provided much food for thought as well.

In his later years, Bill was writing haiku every day and read volumes of poets. Classes at the Art Center had him pick up brushes for watercolor and pencils for drawing. Visiting friends often went home with a painting from Bill. He loved volunteering at the Faith & Grace Garden in West Des Moines. Their many gardens, no-lawn front yard and beloved meadow north of the patio kept Bill busy wearing out gardening gloves and Robin’s tolerance of endless yardwork.

Besides Robin, the love of his life was Daisy, a lab-retriever mix given to him by a friend. Daisy stole Bill’s heart, leaving him quite bereaved when she departed at the age of 14 on Valentine’s Day, 2022.

To his end, he was quite disturbed by and vocal about the current treachery and wreckage occurring under the Golden Dome and in DC. His final days, however, saw him focusing on enjoying the visits of many friends.

Diagnosed with short-term memory loss in 2019, dementia and eventually late-onset Alzheimer’s, Bill navigated this journey with dignity and cheer. He didn’t know a stranger and enjoyed visiting and joshing with friends at True Value, Fareway, the post office, and Tandem Brick. Babies, young children and dogs were special magnets for him.

Ever the smart aleck, Bill cohered relationships with the staff at Wesley Adult Care. He lived at John’s Harbor, Memory Care at Wesley on Grand, for four weeks before an infection took him to Methodist Hospital on March 16. Defying a plan to move him to hospice care, Bill took his leave in the early morning of Tuesday, March 25, 2025. The care he received during 10 days at Methodist was compassionate, loving, competent and thorough.

Through his dementia years, he loved talking about owls, bread baking and Daisy. He still enjoyed opera, and the pre-performance lectures. Bill loved Robin’s cooking and would nightly turn to her and remark, holding a forkful, “this is really good.” We suspect that the prospect of no more home cooking contributed to his body’s decision that it was time to head heavenward.

Bill was an Emeritus member of the American Chemical Society, also maintained memberships in the American Institute of Chemistry, International Association of Culinary Professionals, Southern Foodways Alliance, the Cloud Appreciation Society, Audubon Society, International Owl Center, and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

He was preceded in death by both of his parents, his brother, Richard; and his first wife. He is survived by his son, Charles William Francis Summers and daughter-in-law, Ginny McDaniel; grand -dog, Bud Wiser (St Louis); daughter, Elizabeth (David) Huff (Cincinnati); and a sister, Dr. Anne Summers (Athens, GA).

Funeral services will be held at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, April 6, 2025 at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway, 3601 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines, Iowa, with family greeting guests following the service. Services will be livestreamed. The livestream link will be posted at the end of this obituary on the day of the service.

In memory of Bill, please donate a pint of blood to your local blood bank if you are able. If you would like, contribute to the Connection Café, 600 6th Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50309 or Faith & Grace Garden/St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 1020 24th St., West Des Moines, IA 50266.

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